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by Paul Lester (Author)
For the survivors of the Galveston hurricane, there was no thought of property damage; those who had escaped with their families, losing all else, considered themselves blessed.
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"Massive buildings were crushed like egg shells, great timbers were carried through the air as though they were of no weight, and the winds and the waves swept everything before them until their appetite for destruction was satiated and their force spent."
--from the foreword by Richard Spillane, editor of the Galveston Tribune
With more than 6,000 souls lost in the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, the enormity of the disaster overshadows the ordeals suffered by those individuals who somehow managed to survive.
Yet their stories, their tragedies and triumphs, reveal much--not only about the most devastating natural disaster in U. S. history, but also of the endurance of the human spirit.
Here, rare, powerful, and evocative photographs combine with numerous firsthand testimonials to provide, on a human scale, a picture of what occurred during and after the storm.
During the terrible deluge on the night of September 8, S. W. Clinton lost his wife and six children, including two sons whom he could not save from drowning before his very eyes. Yet others survived. Long engaged, Ernest A. Mayo and Bessie Roberts decided it was better to face the daunting tasks ahead of them together, and were married a mere five days after the flood.
Their stories, and the stories of all who survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, attest to humanity's ability to overcome even the most horrific of disasters.
Paul Lester's many other books include Life in the South -West. Also available to commemorate the centennial of the hurricane are: Storms, Floods and Sunshine: Isaac Monroe Cline, an Autobiography; When the Heavens Frowned; and Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. All are published by Pelican.
